Bank credit to industry rises 8.6% in February, shows RBI data

Bank credit to industry grew 8.6 per cent year-on-year in February mainly due to accelerated pace of borrowing by sectors, like infrastructure and textiles, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data released on Thursday revealed.

Credit growth to agriculture and allied activities remained robust at 20.1 per cent in February compared to 15 per cent in the year-ago month, said the RBI's data on sectoral deployment of bank credit.

Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for February has been collected from 41 select commercial banks, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all lenders, the data showed.

"Credit to industry grew by 8.6 per cent (year-on-year) in February 2024 as compared with 6.8 per cent in February 2023," the RBI said.

Among major industries, the annual growth in credit to "food processing", "infrastructure", and "textiles" accelerated in February as compared with the corresponding month of the previous year, while that to "basic metal and metal products" and "chemicals and chemical products" decelerated.

Further, personal loans growth moderated to 18.1 per cent in February (from 20.6 per cent a year ago) due to decelerated growth in vehicle loans and other personal loans. Credit to services sector grew 21.2 per cent as compared to 20.5 per cent in February 2023.